Pokémon Company International has criticised the White House for using its imagery, including a small version of the popular character Pikachu, in a meme online featuring the slogan “Make America Great Again”.
A spokesperson for the company, Sravanthi Dev, said, “We were not involved in its creation or distribution and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property. Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda.”
The company has previously criticised the Trump administration for using Pokémon imagery in content promoting its deportation efforts.
As per a BBC report, the White House suggested that Pokémon may be showing political bias. Pokémon has not confirmed whether it plans to pursue legal action against the US government.
The franchise, which recently launched the game ‘Pokopia’ for Nintendo, previously rebuked the Trump administration in September for using its theme song and slogan, “Gotta catch ’em all,” in a video showing arrests by US border patrol and immigration authorities. At the time, the company stated that it had not authorised the use of its intellectual property.
The latest meme appears to feature an image from Pokopia, with the slogan written in a font similar to the game. A small Pikachu can be seen peeking from behind the letter “e” in the word “make”.
In response to Pokémon’s statement, White House spokesman Kaelan Dorr posted on X, referencing a 10-year-old Wall Street Journal article about Hillary Clinton mentioning Pokémon Go during the 2016 election.
Dorr wrote, “Hey Mr Pikachu, big fan. Question for you – why no response to articles like this? Seems kinda like you ARE maybe affiliated with a political viewpoint, no?”
During Trump’s second term, the administration frequently used popular memes on official government social media accounts. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson described the approach, saying, “Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the president’s extremely popular agenda.”
Recently, the White House posted a video combining images from the war against Iran with clips from the Call of Duty video game franchise.
Several artists have expressed frustration at the Trump administration’s use of their work online. Comedian and podcaster Theo Von, who has interviewed Trump and supports him politically, publicly objected last year when the Department of Homeland Security used a clip of him to highlight deportation numbers.
Von wrote on X, “Yooo DHS I did not approve to be used in this. I know you know my address so send a check. And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos.”
